People

Sahar Assaf

Sahar Assaf (she/her) is a Lebanese theatremaker and professor. She has been active in the Lebanese theatre scene since 2003 as an actor, director, translator, and producer. She’s presented works in Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Belgium, London, Sweden, Poland, Greece, Chicago, and NYC. At the American University of Beirut where she headed the minor program in Theater Arts and was an Assistant Professor, she co-founded with her long term collaborator playwright Robert Myers, the Theater Initiative, an interdisciplinary group of faculty and artists working to facilitate theatre creation and research locally, regionally, and internationally. Her directing credits for the Theater Initiative include Garcia-Lorca’s Blood Wedding as a site-specific promenade performance in the village of Hammana in Mount Lebanon, Shakespeare’s King Lear (co-directed with Rachel Valentine Smith of The Faction ensemble of London) which was the first production of a Shakespearean play in Lebanese colloquial Arabic, The Rape and Rituals of Signs and Transformations by Sa’dallah Wannous, Watch Your Step: Beirut Heritage Walking Tour which was a site-specific devised work on the Lebanese civil war. Sahar is a strong advocate of documentary theatre and recently conceived and directed Meen El Felten, an immersive documentary play on sexual assault in Lebanon as part of the Abaad MENA campaign of 2018, and No Demand No Supply, a documentary play about sex trafficking and prostitution in collaboration with the Kafa organization.

As an actor, Sahar is trained in the Meisner technique and recently started training in Alba Emoting, a somatic approach to acting based in neuroscience. Her acting credits include the role of Karen in the Lebanese adaptation of Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies directed by Carlos Chahine, the title role in Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s An Arab Woman Speaks produced by The Faction at New Diorama Theatre in London, and of Barbara in the Lebanese adaptation of August: Osage County by Tracy Letts.

She contributes to academic research on theatre through publications of reflections on her work. She has been published in Arab Stages, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, and authored chapters in books including Theatre in the Middle East between Performance and Politics edited by Babak Rahimi, Anthem press, 2020, and The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual edited by Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Robert Myers, Cambridge University Press 2021.

Sahar is a recipient of the Fulbright scholarship (2009) and holds an MA in Theatre Studies from Central Washington University (2011) and an MA in Sociology from the American University of Beirut (2005). She is an ensemble member of The Faction, a London-based award-winning theatre company, an alumna of Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab in NYC (2014) and of Directors Lab North in Toronto (2017), and she is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Directors Lab Mediterranean.

As much as she’s passionate about her role as a theatre maker, Sahar is equally passionate about her new role as a mother to Zad.

Michelle Mulholland

Michelle Mulholland (she/her) is an arts administrator and costume designer with more than 20 years of experience in Bay Area theater. Michelle has been managing day to day operations at Golden Thread for the last decade with a solid foundation of non-profit management, member services, and fundraising experience from some of San Francisco’s finest arts and environmental justice organizations, including Brava Theater, Beach Blanket Babylon, Theater Artaud, the Commonwealth Club of California, The Coral Reef Alliance and Forests Forever. In that time, she has enabled the company’s exponential growth through the implementation of many key strategic initiatives and the institution of significant policies and procedures. She has twice served on grant panels for the San Francisco Arts Commission and was an active member of the TBA Theater Services Committee for many years. A freelance costume designer since 2008, she has designed for numerous Bay Area companies, including New Conservatory Theatre Center, Magic Theatre, Golden Thread Productions, Word for Word, Crowded Fire Theater, African-American Shakespeare Company, Z Space, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Cutting Ball Theater, and Brava Theater. She has also worked with Teatro Zinzanni, ACT, and the SFMOMA.

Wynne Chan

Wynne Chan (she/her) is a a Hong Kong-American director and theater artist with ten years of nonprofit experience. Most recently, she was the head of Candid’s Seals of Transparency program and managed the U.S.’s largest self-contributed nonprofit database with over 100,000 nonprofit participants. Previously, she led GuideStar’s revenue budgeting, strategic planning, and impact evaluation. She helped coordinate the formation of Candid (from Guidestar and Foundation Center) and facilitated cross-organization workstreams on strategic vision and culture and change management.

Wynne also directs, vocal directs, produces, and performs regularly in the Bay Area. She is the co-founder and artistic director of SDC productions, a collaborative theatre and cabaret group. As a director and performer, she’s worked with various theater companies around the Bay Area, including San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, The Pear Theatre, Hillbarn Theatre, Berkeley Playhouse, Plethos Productions, and 3Girls Theater. wynnechan.info

Evren Odcikin

EVREN ODCIKIN (he/him) is a Turkish-American director, writer, and arts leader committed to championing historically excluded voices and stories in the American theater. His work is heart-centered, politically engaged, globally minded, and centers joy as resistance. He is proud to be the 2024-25 Artist in Residence at Golden Thread Productions, a company he’s been associated with since 2005. Directing: Macbeth and Mona Mansour’s unseen (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Torch Song (Marin Theatre), christopher oscar peña’s Our Orange Sky (Profile Theatre), Sylvia Khoury’s Selling Kabul (Northern Stage), and Amir Nizar Zuabi’s This is Who I Am (Woolly Mammoth, PlayCo, A.R.T., Guthrie, and OSF), as well as work at Geva, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, InterAct, Cleveland Public Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, and Magic Theatre amongst many others. Playwriting and translation: Commissions and productions at Cal Shakes, NYU Abu Dhabi, Golden Thread and Crowded Fire, and Custom Made. In 2023, he served as the Interim Artistic Director at OSF, where he had been the Associate Artistic Director and Director of Artistic Programming since 2019. At OSF, he was instrumental in “saving” the 2023 Season, programmed the successful 2024 Season for the company, and over five years, produced more than 30 productions. Evren is a founder of Maia Directors and serves on the Boards of MENA Theater Makers Alliance and Playwrights Foundation. odcikin.com

Wendy Reyes

Wendy Reyes (she/her) is a Mexican-American, multimedia artist from St. Louis, Missouri. She received her Bachelor in Media Studies, minor in Chicanx-Latinx Studies from the University of San Francisco. With her skills in video and audio production, she aims to create engaging and educational material that brings awareness to social injustices in order to promote a healthy and just path for marginalized communities. Wendy is now based in the Bay Area and is the Production Associate at Golden Thread Productions and a current participant of KALW’s radio journalism program in San Francisco, CA.

Soluna Espinosa Pieb

Soluna Espinosa Pieb (they/them) is a queer Mexican-American actor based in the Bay Area. They are proud to be a shared staff member at Crowded Fire Theater and Golden Thread Productions, serving as Development & Patron Services Associate at both companies. Soluna is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Theater and Performance Studies program, and has since been fortunate enough to bring new plays like Gary Soto’s The Afterlife onstage, both nationally and internationally, as well as Linda Girón’s Memoria del Silencio en el País de la Eterna Primavera. They also made their directorial debut with Linda Girón’s LIMÃO Y SAL. Soluna feels blessed to be surrounded by so many brilliant artists, and can’t wait to bring the incredible visions of Crowded Fire and Golden Thread into reality!

Navid Ghaem Maghami

Navid Ghaem Maghami (he/him) is a graphic designer based in San Francisco. He began working with Golden Thread in 2008. As a design professional and art director he has worked widely in a variety of disciplines and media, while focusing primarily on poster & publication design, logo & visual identity and advertising since 1998. Through his full-service graphic design studio NaMa, Navid offers creative solutions as well as design consulting services to numerous arts and cultural institutions, visual artists, independent musicians, theater companies, film festivals, and filmmakers both locally and internationally. Navid holds an MFA in design from California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Torange Yeghiazarian

Torange Yeghiazarian (she/her) is the Founding Artistic Director Emeritus of Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company focused on the Middle East where she launched such visionary programs as ReOrient Festival, New Threads, Fairytale Players, and What do the Women Say?, and timely initiatives such as Islam 101 and Project Alo? Torange has been recognized by Theatre Bay Area and is one of Theatre Communication Group’s Legacy Leaders of Color. She was honored by the Cairo International Theatre Festival and the Symposium on Equity in the Entertainment Industry at Stanford University. A playwright, director, and translator, Torange contributed a case study chapter to “Casting a Movement”, forthcoming from Routledge, 2019. Her translation and stage adaptation of Nizami’s “Leyla & Majnun” is published on Gleeditions.com. She has been published in The Drama Review, American Theatre Magazine, AmerAsia Journal, and contributed to Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures and Cambridge World Encyclopedia of Stage Actors. At Golden Thread, Torange directed OH MY SWEET LAND by Amir Nizar Zuabi, and the premieres of OUR ENEMIES: LIVELY SCENES OF LOVE AND COMBAT and SCENIC ROUTES by Yussef El Guindi, THE MYTH OF CREATION by Sadegh Hedayat, TAMAM by Betty Shamieh, STUCK by Amir Al-Azraki, VOICE ROOM by Reza Soroor, and adapted the poem, I SELL SOULS by Simin Behbehani for the stage. Torange was a member of the artistic team that developed BENEDICTUS, a collaboration among Iranian, Israeli, and American artists. She received a Gerbode-Hewlett Playwright Commission Award for ISFAHAN BLUES, a co-production with African American Shakespeare Company, and a commission from the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California to write THE FIFTH STRING: ZIRYAB’S PASSAGE TO CORDOBA. Other plays include 444 DAYS, WAVES, and CALL ME MEHDI, included in the anthology “Salaam. Peace: An Anthology of Middle Eastern-American Drama,” TCG, 2009. Born in Iran and of Armenian heritage, Torange holds a Master’s degree in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University.

Vida Ghahremani

Vida Ghahremani (she/her) began acting in films as a teenager in Iran, where she established the standards of stardom. Some of her Iranian film classics include, CHAHAR RAH HAVADES, TOOFAN DAR SHAHR MA, FARYAD NIMEH-SHAB, FARDA ROWSHAN AST, ATASH VA KHAKESTAR, ESHGH VA ENTEGHAM. In the US, she appeared in the award-winning film by Wayne Wang, ONE THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS, and THE STONING OF SORAYA M by Cyrus Nowrasteh. Vida has been an artistic associate with Golden Thread since its first production, OPERATION NO PENETRATION, LYSISTRATA 97! Other performances include THE LOVE MISSILE (with Sofia Ahmad as her daughter), ABAGA and NINE ARMENIANS. Ms. Ghahremani is a member of the Screen Actors Guild.

Babak Sani

Babak Sani (he/him) has been practicing intellectual property law since 1992. Prior to that, he had an engineering career in Silicon Valley as an integrated circuit designer in the microelectronics industry. He was born in Iran and emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 15. He has been a longtime supporter of a number of non-profits focusing on the arts, education, the environment, and immigration reform, and has provided pro bono legal services for several such organizations. He also serves on the board of The Body Positive, a non-profit focusing on education around body image. His interest in the fine arts, in particular of the type that builds bridges between people and cultures with different roots, made him an early supporter of Golden Thread Productions. He believes deeply in the mission of Golden Thread and is delighted to be part of the organization. He received a Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, a Master’s degree from Santa Clara University in telecommunications, and his Juris Doctor degree from UC Hastings. He has two daughters and lives in Berkeley, CA.

May Allam

May Allam (she/her) is Senior Director of Engineering at TiVo, San Jose CA. She manages an Engineering organization responsible for developing the TiVo experience for set-top boxes at millions of households worldwide. Before joining TiVo, May worked at Palm and IBM Cairo Scientific Center. Throughout her career, May focused on building and empowering technical teams who develop great products. May is passionate about performing arts and believes in the power and impact of performing arts in widening of visions and spreading of genuine human values. May is thrilled to support Golden Thread’s mission of building bridges between the Middle East and the West by sharing stories and opening a dialogue.

Nora el Samahy

Nora el Samahy’s (she/her) professional acting career began in 1998 as a Fairy in San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. She then went on to work with Campo Santo, Golden Thread Productions, Alter Theater, Aurora Theatre, Magic Theatre, foolsFURY, Traveling Jewish Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Exit Theater, Theatre Rhinoceros, Woman’s Will, Shotgun Players, African American Shakespeare Company, among others. In 2013, Nora founded a performance company called Affinity Project with Atosa Babaoff, Beatrice Basso, and Emily Hoffman. Nora is a Pilates teacher and co-owner of studio 74 pilates with business partner Jennifer Moulton. She received her BA in psychology from Wellesley College. Love and thanks to Patrick and Ziyad.

John Atwood

John Atwood (he/him) is a Learning and Development Manager at Google. He partners with engineering leadership to grow engineering talent and scale learning resources globally. During his time at Google, John has worked in the U.S. and Switzerland, and has visited over 10 distributed offices across Asia, Europe, and South America. Previous to Google, John performed with a number of Bay Area theatre companies including: California Shakespeare Theater, Crowded Fire Theater, New Conservatory Theatre, Impact Theatre, and Theatre Rhinoceros. John’s passion for theatre stems from his belief that theatre builds community and serves as a catalyst for important dialogue and positive change. He is absolutely thrilled to serve on the board for Golden Thread Productions. John holds an M.S. in Organization Development from Pepperdine University, and earned a Bachelors degree in Communication and Theatre from the University of California, San Diego.

Humaira Ghilzai

HUMAIRA GHILZAI (she/her)

Humaira Ghilzai is a writer, speaker, producer and Afghanistan cultural advisor. Humaira co-founded the non-profit Afghan Friends Network and instituted the Sister City relationship between Hayward, California and Ghazni, Afghanistan where she has done extensive work for the past 18 years to improve education for girls, boys, and women.

Humaira is a sought-after cultural expert who has worked with notable professional theatres authors, playwrights, and artists, utilizing her extensive knowledge of Afghan people, culture, religion, and history to bring authenticity to their creative work relating to Afghanistan and the Islamic world. Humaira made her Broadway debut in 2022 with the production of the Kite Runner.

Humaira was born and raised in Kabul, Afghanistan but her family fled the country right after the Russian invasion in 1979 and they made the Bay Area their new home. Humaira has traveled to six continents, 37 countries—including a pilgrimage to Mecca. Humaira attended Mills College and San Jose State University and has a degree in International Business. She started her career in high tech giants Sun Microsystems and Oracle Corporation but took a turn towards philanthropy and the arts mid-career. Humaira is a member of MENA Theatre Makers Alliance and the anti-racist cohort, Making Good Trouble, focused on advocating for equity of BIPOC representation in the arts.

Murrey Nelson

Murrey Nelson (she/her) is the Director of Development for Chanticleer, a GRAMMY® award winning men’s a’capella group based in San Francisco, now in its 45th year. Following 20 years in the for-profit sector, primarily doing trademark licensing for fashion brands, she made the decision to be a fundraising professional in the non-profit arts sector, and has done so for fifteen years, mostly in the field of classical music. Murrey got to know Golden Thread when they were a tenant of Z Space, where she served on the board for 11 years; and got to know them more intimately when she provided fundraising consulting services to the organization in 2014. She has served on three theatre boards, as well as boards and committees in other areas. Murrey is proud to serve on the board of such an excellent theatre company as Golden Thread.

Rita Hovakimian

Rita Hovakimian (she/her) is a Business Coach and Prosperity Mentor. She invites her clients to think big; to imagine all that is possible for their lives and businesses. Approaching success from a spirit-driven place, she challenges business owners to get out of their own way and to start living the miraculous. Rita helps small businesses to co-create an inclusive, effective and inspiring work culture with their staff. For more than 25 years she has been helping entrepreneurs, business owners and their staff connect with their purpose, identify their business vision and goals, and achieve financial success. Rita understands the path to success involves our relationship with money, and how we charge for our services correlates to our self-worth. Deeply-entrenched limiting beliefs often play a role, so much of Rita’s work centers around identifying those beliefs and installing more empowering ones. Her clients confidently own their value and increase their financial prosperity with ease.  Rita is a certified Professional Coach through New Ventures West with extensive training in the Enneagram system of personality development and awareness. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from San Francisco State University, graduating with honors. Additional training includes four years of intuitive training held at Bastyr University as well as masters-level certification in Neurolinguistic Programing (NLP) in London, England. She has studied with the best mentors in her field, embodying the principles she has learned and sharing them with those she has coached over the last 25 years. Rita created a unique body of work called “Women, Power and Body Esteem: Being a Woman in the 21st Century,” in 1991, which she lead for 11 years to over 2,000 women throughout the US and in Canada. She now certifies women as Women, Power and Body Esteem coaches around the world in this deep, empowering work. Her vision is that women be able to embrace all that they are, and all they aspire to be in a powerful and authentic way.

Rita is always engaged in growth and development, both personally and professionally, and has been a daily meditator for over 2 decades. She sits on the Board of Trustees of Golden Thread Productions, whose mission is to produce passionate and provocative plays from or about the Middle East – including its global diaspora - that celebrate the multiplicity of its perspectives and identities. Being a philanthropist and being of service gives her the greatest joy. Her husband Robert is her biggest supporter in work and in life.

Nancy Chemaly

Nancy Chemaly’s (she/her) deep-rooted belief in the central role of Chemistry in life has shaped her path from an early age. Recognizing that bonds, both literal and metaphorical, are at the heart of existence, she pursued a Master’s degree in Chemistry (in Beirut, Lebanon) and a degree in education (in The US after moving in 2000) combining her passion for the subject with her love for teaching. Nancy found her calling as a Chemistry teacher. Her dedication for strengthening bonds extends beyond the realm of chemical compounds. She invests in nurturing connections with her students, two children, and the husband she met in a Chemistry lab 31 years ago, where their own chemistry sparked. Understanding and valuing individual differences, Nancy actively promotes diversity and equity within her classroom. She takes on the role of counselor and supporter for teenagers, leveraging her trilingual background to ease the transition of newcomers to the United States.

In addition to her commitments in education, Nancy’s involvement in the community is noteworthy. She serves on The English Learner’s committee, ensuring that all students have equal opportunities to thrive. As a representative for the school site council for Monte Vista High School (2019-2021), she actively contributed to shaping educational policies. Currently, she holds the role of marketing and event coordinator for the Sunjams Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds music education in under-resourced public schools.

Proud of her Middle Eastern roots and heritage, she firmly believes in the power of understanding of others’ stories as a way to foster empathy and eliminate hate. Embracing the exciting chapter of an empty nest, she eagerly seeks opportunities to share and celebrate her culture while engaging with diverse cultures through theatre and art. She has faith in the mission of Golden Thread Productions and is proud to be part of this organization.

Hassan Abdulrazzak

HASSAN ABDULRAZZAK (Resident Artist / Playwright) is of Iraqi origin, born in Prague and living in London. His plays include Baghdad Wedding (Soho Theatre, 2007; Belvoir St Theatre, 2009; Akvarious Productions, 2010), The Prophet (Gate Theatre, 2012), Love, Bombs, and Apples (Arcola Theatre, 2016; and UK tour), and And Here I Am (Arcola Theatre, 2017; and UK tour). His short plays include Lost Kingdom, which was selected out of 75 scripts to be part of San Francisco’s ReOrient 2015 Festival at Golden Thread, and Trump in Palestine, part of a multi-author show called Top Trumps performed at Theatre 503 (January, 2017). He has contributed to several anthologies including Iraq+100: Stories From a Century After the Invasion (Conemma Press, 2016) anrd Don’t Panic I’m Islamic (Saqi books, 2017). He is the recipient of George Devine, Meyer-Whitworth and Pearson theatre awards, as well as the Arab British Centre Award for Culture. abdulrazzak.weebly.com

Sofia Ahmad

SOFIA AHMAD (Resident Artist / Actor) is an Oakland-based actor, ballroom dance instructor and choreographer, and teaching artist. Her first collaboration with Golden Thread was in 2003 on the original musical The Love Missile. Since then, she has had the pleasure of appearing in the mainstage productions of Isfahan Blues and The Most Dangerous Highway in the World, as well as many readings. Other local acting credits include SF Shakespeare Festival, Magic Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Those Women Productions, Arabian Shakespeare Festival, San Jose Stage, Pacific Repertory Theater, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New Conservatory Theatre Center. Theatre choreography credits include San Francisco Playhouse and Inverness Shakespeare. She has served as a teaching artist with SF Shakespeare, Theatreworks, Word 4 Word, San Francisco School, and the City of Piedmont. Sofia is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. sofiaahmad.com

Shoresh Alaudini

SHORESH ALAUDINI (Resident Artist / Actor) is a self- proclaimed mavenous artist, combining ravenous and maven to encompass his insatiable desire to express through any possible creative outlet at his disposal. He received his B.A. in Performing Arts and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco. He was the inaugural recipient of the Beach Blanket Babylon $10,000 Acting Scholarship for the Arts. He has performed with Golden Thread Productions, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Shotgun Players, Pollinator Theatre, Sleepwalkers Theatre, Theatre Period, Crowded Fire, Brava, Rising Voices, College Players USF, Ross Valley Players, and Intersection for the arts. Film credits include 2004’s award winning indy Mission Movie, 2007 Sundance Selection Strange Culture, and Focus Feature’s 2016 release Kicks. Born of Laotian and Persian Roots, part of his mission in the Bay Area revolves around showcasing those interconnected aspects of family and culture integral to his upbringing to garner a greater understanding of how we can build common ground through storytelling.

Munaf Alsafi

MUNAF ALSAFI (Resident Artist / Actor and Musician) is a Bay Area musician and actor who was introduced to theatre with Aftermath (Theatre Period) in 2012. Since then, he has acted with Golden Thread Productions, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, The One Minute Play Festival, and Indistage, amongst others. Recent performances include Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat, Rickshaw Girl, Othello, and The Fifth String: Ziryab’s Passage to Cordoba. Munaf was born in Iraq and although he migrated to the United States as a child, he was exposed to the music of his homeland at an early age and that music has continued to influence him. In America, he was raised in Alabama and Mississippi where he was exposed to the delta blues and rhythm and blues. He writes music, is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, and his instrument of choice is the Oud. He enjoys blending music and theatre whenever possible.

Wesley Apfel

WESLEY APFEL (Resident Artist / Stage Manager) is excited to join the team of Resident Artists at Golden Thread. For the company, he has stage managed the ReOrient Festivals in 2012 and 2015, and the world premiere of Night Over Erzinga. Bay Area credits include Detroit, After the Revolution, and This Is How It Goes (Aurora); The 39 Steps, Lucky Stiff, and Xanadu (Center REP); Somewhere (Theatreworks). He’s spent five seasons with the Sacramento Theatre Company, including the world premieres of The Donner Party: An American Musical, Of Kites and Kings, and Kate: The Unexamined Life of Katharine Hepburn. He has stage managed more than 40 productions in the New York area — including the original productions of The Graduate, Festen, Gutenberg the Musical!, Bat Boy, The Musical of Musicals, Little Fish and The Thing About Men. Wes also served as the Production Supervisor for the Summer Play Festival at the Public Theatre.

James Ard

JAMES ARD (Resident Artist / Sound Designer) Ard is a local San Francisco designer, noisemaker, mechanic, and theatre vagrant, who composes soundscapes & music for humans, dogs, parrots, and bicycles. Ard’s sound design has been heard at the Public Theater in New York, the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, and most importantly: here at home in San Francisco, at the Potrero Stage, in collaborations with both Golden Thread Productions and Crowded Fire. Recent Golden Thread credits include adaptation for Shelter (alongside Torange Yeghiazarian), sound design for The Most Dangerous Highway in the World, and sound design for various plays presented at ReOrient Festivals 2015 and 2017. Ard is a co-founder of SoundPlay.media, and is currently producing short plays for podcast at BareWireTheatre.com.

Kenan Arun

KENAN ARUN (Resident Artist / Makeup Designer) is a makeup artist for stage and FX makeup for 10 years, and has been working with Golden Thread Productions since 2014. Some of his credits include The Maids by Jean Genet (Stage on the Run, One-Act Festival, Heidelberg, Germany, 2011), Angels in America by Tony Kushner (Stage on the Run, Ankara, Turkey, 2012), The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber (Turkish-American Association, Ankara, Turkey, 2012), Rendezvous by Rob Cantor (Music Video, Los Angeles, 2014), ReOrient 2015 and 2017 Festivals (Golden Thread Productions, San Francisco), The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe (The African-American Shakespeare Company, San Francisco, 2016), The Most Dangerous Highway in the World by Kevin Artigue (Golden Thread Productions, San Francisco, 2016), Seven Minutes to Closing by Kim Nunley (Short Movie, Oakland, 2016), Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat by Yussef El Guindi (Golden Thread Productions, San Francisco, 2017). He also serves as Wig & Makeup Consultant at Drunk Drag Broadway. kenanarunmakeup.com

James Asher

JAMES ASHER (Resident Artist / Actor) Regional: Sweeney Todd, Show Boat (San Francisco Opera); The Laramie Project (Berkeley Rep/La Jolla Playhouse); Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (national tour); Picasso at the Lapin Agile (national tour); The Foreigner (San Jose Rep); Tape (Magic Theatre); Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat, Language Rooms, Back of the Throat (Golden Thread/LATC); You Mean to Do Me Harm (SF Playhouse); The Merry Wives Of Windsor (Santa Cruz Shakespeare Festival); Love’s Labour Lost (Idaho Shakespeare Festival). NYC/Off Broadway: The Laramie Project (Union Square Theater); Destination America (Second Stage Studio); Sajjil (Record) (Nibras Theater Co). Film: Paradise Club, Us, The Singularity is Near. TV: Parenthood (NBC), Spicy City (HBO), Chance (Hulu).

Atosa Melody Babaoff

ATOSA MELODY BABAOFF (Resident Artist / Actor) is thrilled to be on this adventure with her old friends and theatre family at Golden Thread. She was just graduating from the American Conservatory Theater’s M.F.A. Program when she dove into her first Golden Thread production of Nine Armenians back in the early-2000s. She has worked with Golden Thread sporadically ever since, and this last experience with the ReOrient 2017 Festival left her feeling joyful and nourished as ever. She has also worked at A.C.T, Berkeley Rep, Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, and was a company member of both Laura Arrington Dance and Liz Tenuto Dance and a Half, which led her to NYC twice for some amazing performances. She is a founding member of Affinity Project with Nora el Samahy, Beatrice Basso, and Emily Hoffman. They were recipients of grants/residencies that led them to perform with FoolsFURY and at YBCA. She has an abundant and lovely yoga career when not performing. She is grateful for all of the loved ones in her life who encourage her to keep pursuing all that she is passionate about, in art and in life.

Cassie Barnes

CASSIE BARNES (Resident Artist / Lighting Designer) is a lighting designer all across the Bay Area for companies such as Golden Thread Productions, Breadbox, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, 99 Stock Productions, Wiley West Productions, and Custom Made. She has recently expanded her career to include dance, which has led her to work with Applegate Dance Company, Bayer Ballet, Bay Pointe Ballet, Ledoh with Salt Farm, and Meredith Webster. She also works as a lighting technician at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Kate Boyd

KATE BOYD (Resident Artist / Scenic and Lighting Designer) recently designed sets for ReOrient 2017 Festival of Short Plays, sets and lights for Isfahan Blues, and sets for The Most Dangerous Highway in the World (TBA Award nomination). Other credits: Aurora Theatre, Center Rep, Magic Theatre, Merola Opera, SF Conservatory of Music, Marin Theatre Company, TheatreWorks, and Brava. Kate teaches stagecraft and design at Lick-Wilmerding High School, and was a recipient of the Gerbode Design Fellowship.

Jim Cave

JIM CAVE (Resident Artist / Lighting Designer) has focused on the development of new theatre and multi-disciplinary and site-specific performances for the past 40 years. He has directed and designed plays, dance, dance-theater, opera, new music theatre, site-specific spectaculars, and even a flea circus at the Exploratorium. The East Bay Express included him in its Best Of 2004 edition for Moodiest Theatrical Illumination: “His understanding of both the plays he lights and the theatre’s space is total. Warm and inviting or searing and harsh, Cave’s lighting designs often tell us as much about the story as the text itself.” He received Bay Area Critics’ Circle Awards for the premiere production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America at The Eureka Theatre and for Aurora Theatre Company productions of Jack Goes Boating and The Entertainer. His collaborators have included Campo Santo, Word for Word, Intersection for the Arts, Aurora Theatre Company, Eureka Theatre, Woody Woodman’s Finger Palace, Erling Wold, Robert Ernst, Anna Halprin, Ruth Zaporah, The Residents, Deborah Slater, Oliver DiCicco and Mobius Operandi, Magic Theatre, Darvag, and Golden Thread.

Yussef El Guindi

YUSSEF EL GUINDI’s (Resident Artist / Playwright) productions include The Talented Ones at Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland (Santa Barbara Independent Indy Award); Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat at Golden Thread Productions (American Theatre Critics Association’s M. Elizabeth Osborn Award); Threesome at Portland Center Stage, ACT, and at 59E59 (winner of a Portland Drammy for Best Original Script); The Ramayana (co-adaptor with Stephanie Timm) at ACT Seattle; Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World (winner of the Steinberg/American Theater Critics Association’s New Play Award) also at ACT Seattle and at Center Repertory Company (Walnut Creek, CA); and Language Rooms (Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award), co-produced by Golden Thread Productions and Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco; at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia (premiere), and at the Los Angeles Theater Center.

Nora el Samahy

NORA EL SAMAHY (Resident Artist / Actor) began her professional acting career in 1998 as a Fairy in San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She then went on to work with Campo Santo, Golden Thread Productions, Alter Theater, Aurora Theatre, Magic Theatre, foolsFURY, Traveling Jewish Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Exit Theater, Theatre Rhinoceros, Woman’s Will, Shotgun Players, African American Shakespeare Company, among others. In 2013, Nora founded a performance company called Affinity Project with Atosa Babaoff, Beatrice Basso, and Emily Hoffman. Nora is a Pilates teacher and co-owner of studio 74 pilates with business partner Jennifer Moulton. She received her BA in psychology from Wellesley College. Nora also serves on the Golden Thread Board of Trustees. Love and thanks to Patrick and Ziyad.

Debórah Eliezer

DEBÓRAH ELIEZER (Resident Artist / Actor), is an ensemble theatre maker. She has been working with Golden Thread since 2003. Golden Thread credits include Karima’s City (2003 ReOrient and 2004 Cairo Festival of Experimental Theatre) by Yussef El Guindi, The Admission by Mottie Lerner, Ecstasy, a Waterfable by Denmo Ibrahim, and The Fifth String by Torange Yeghiazarian. Eliezer is the Co-Artistic Director of foolsFURY, producing new work, a national festival, internship opportunities, and public educational programs. She holds a BA Cum Laude from SF State University and a certificate in Sound, Voice, Music Healing from CIIS. With foolsFURY, Eliezer has created and performed in world premieres of (dis)Place[d], which she wrote and performed, The Unheard of World by Fabrice Melquiot, Faulted by Angela Santillo, Port Out Starboard Home with Sheila Callaghan (SF and NYC), Monster in the Dark with Doug Dorst, The Devil on All Sides by Fabrice Melquiot (SF and NYC), All You Can Eat by Steven Morgan Haskell, and The Jensen Files by Ben Yalom. Eliezer directed and choreographed The Seeing Place by Elizabeth Spreen and Debórah Eliezer. Choreographic credits include Boxcar’s The Speakeasy, foolsFURY’s Port Out, Starboard Home, Monster in the Dark, Charles Mee’s Big Love, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and foolsFURY’s adaptation of Don Delillo’s Valparaiso. Incubator Series performances include Lucinda Otto’s Threshold, Mia Rovegno’s The Apartment, Doug Dorst’s (R)Evolution X, and Angela Santillo’s Sera. She has also worked with Woman’s Will, The Puppet Players, Marin Shakespeare, Antenna Theater, and TJT. She was the Co-Artistic Director of Eclipse Dance Theater from 1996-2002. As a professional voiceover artist, you may have heard her voice in over 25 Leapfrog Toys, Sims 2, 3, and 4 video games, or numerous radio ads. Eliezer teaches throughout the Bay Area, and maintains a private coaching practice. She produces weddings, workshops, and retreats at Venado, a 33-acre artist retreat center. For more information, visit Venado Retreat on Facebook.

Nakissa Etemad

NAKISSA ETEMAD (Resident Artist / Dramaturg) is a professional dramaturg, producer, director, and French translator based in San Francisco. The Regional VP of Metro Bay Area for the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), she has worked in the field of dramaturgy since 1992, including full-time posts at The Wilma Theater, San Jose Repertory Theatre, and San Diego Rep. Nakissa specializes in new play development and has fostered 24 professional world premiere plays and musicals, and dramaturged over 90 productions, workshops, and staged readings. Credits include the four multi-city world premieres of Marcus Gardley’s the road weeps, the well runs dry, produced by the Lark’s Launching New Plays into the Repertoire initiative, which garnered her the 2015 Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy. Nakissa is currently working with frequent collaborator Gardley on his Play on! commission of King Lear for Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She studied at the Université de Paris III, and holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from UCSD and certificates from Le Cordon Bleu, London.

Naseem Etemad

NASEEM ETEMAD (Resident Artist / Actor) is a Los Angeles-based actor that has worked both behind the scenes and on stage with Golden Thread Productions over the last three years, appearing in their New Threads Reading Series, in ReOrient 2015 as Yuliana in Turning Tricks and in ReOrient 2017 as Najla in Manar and as Woman 2 in The Rehearsal. Favorite roles include Pakeeza in Suburbia at Breach Once More; Maryam in Strength and Fortune, a short film by Zein Productions; and Samar in Veils at The Pear Theatre.

Denmo Ibrahim

DENMO IBRAHIM (Resident Artist / Actor and Playwright) is an actor and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She originated the role of Nana in the world premiere of A Thousand Splendid Suns(American Conservatory Theatre & Theatre Calgary) and will continue a national tour this time in the role of Mariam opening at The Old Globe in San Diego in May 2018. Recent credits include Kathryn in Splendour at Aurora Theatre, Noor in Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat at Golden Thread Productions (nominated for a SF Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle Award), Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing at California Shakespeare Theater, and Tyra in I Call My Brothers at Crowded Fire Theater Company (Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding Female Actor in a Featured Role). Her solo show BABA, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, won a SFBATCC for best original script. Ibrahim is a founding artistic director of Mugwumpin. She earned her MFA in Lecoq-Based Actor-Created Physical Theatre from Naropa University and a BFA in acting from Boston University. adenmoproject.com

Hannah Khalil

HANNAH KHALIL’s (Resident Artist / Playwright) stage plays include The Scar Test opened at Soho Theatre, London (“Political Theatre at its best” —Exeunt), Scenes from 68* Years at Arcola Theatre, London (2017 James Tait Black Award nomination; “confirms Khalil as a dramatist of compelling potential” —Daily Telegraph), The Worst Cook in the West Bank at Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival, Bitterenders at Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco (winner Sandpit Arts’ Bulbul 2013), Plan D at Tristan Bates Theatre, London (nominated for the Meyer Whitworth Award), and Ring at (Soho Theatre’s Westminster Prize). Hannah’s work for radio includes The Deportation Room and Last of the Pearl Fishers, both for BBC Radio 4. She is currently working on Channel 4 drama Hollyoaks. Her first short film The Record took the Tommy Vine Award at the Underwire Festival 2015 and is in post-production. She is under commission for Shakespeare’s Globe, The RSC and the National Theatre of Scotland. She was the Bush Theatre’s writer on attachment as part of Project 2036 in 2017. hannahkhalil.com

Mona Mansour

MONA MANSOUR (Resident Artist / Playwright) Recipient of the 2023 Steinberg Playwright Award. We Swim, We Talk, We Go to War, directed by Evren Odcikin, premiered at Golden Thread in 2018. The Vagrant Trilogy premiered at Mosaic Theater in D.C. in June 2018, directed by Mark Wing-Davey. It was presented at New Dramatists in fall 2016 after a workshop at the Vineyard Arts Project with the Public Theater. Of the trilogy: The Hour of Feeling (directed by Wing-Davey) premiered at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and a new Arabic translation was presented at NYU Abu Dhabi as part of its Arab Voices Festival in 2016; Urge For Going had productions at Public LAB (directed by Hal Brooks) and Golden Thread (directed by Odcikin); The Vagrant was workshopped at the 2013 Sundance Theater Institute. Other plays: The Way West (Labyrinth Theater, directed by Mimi O’Donnell; Steppenwolf, directed by Amy Morton; and Marin Theatre Company, directed by Hayley Finn), Unseen (Gift Theater Chicago, directed by Maureen Payne-Hahner), and In the Open (Waterwell, directed by James Dean Palmer). Mona is a member of New Dramatists. Commissions include Playwrights Horizons, Old Globe Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s “American Revolutions.” 2012 Whiting Award. 2014 Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award. monamansour.com

Evren Odcikin

EVREN ODCIKIN (he/him) is a Turkish-American director, writer, and arts leader committed to championing historically excluded voices and stories in the American theater. His work is heart-centered, politically engaged, globally minded, and centers joy as resistance. He is proud to be the 2024-25 Artist in Residence at Golden Thread Productions, a company he’s been associated with since 2005. Directing: Macbeth and Mona Mansour’s unseen (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Torch Song (Marin Theatre), christopher oscar peña’s Our Orange Sky (Profile Theatre), Sylvia Khoury’s Selling Kabul (Northern Stage), and Amir Nizar Zuabi’s This is Who I Am (Woolly Mammoth, PlayCo, A.R.T., Guthrie, and OSF), as well as work at Geva, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, InterAct, Cleveland Public Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, and Magic Theatre amongst many others. Playwriting and translation: Commissions and productions at Cal Shakes, NYU Abu Dhabi, Golden Thread and Crowded Fire, and Custom Made. In 2023, he served as the Interim Artistic Director at OSF, where he had been the Associate Artistic Director and Director of Artistic Programming since 2019. At OSF, he was instrumental in “saving” the 2023 Season, programmed the successful 2024 Season for the company, and over five years, produced more than 30 productions. Evren is a founder of Maia Directors and serves on the Boards of MENA Theater Makers Alliance and Playwrights Foundation. odcikin.com

Lawrence Radecker

LAWRENCE RADECKER’s (Resident Artist / Actor) first production with Golden Thread was the ReOrient 2003 Festival, which then turned into an ongoing relationship with Torange and the company through to the most recent ReOrient 2017 Festival. After a few more Festivals, readings, and a couple of main stage productions, he is proud to be a resident artist with Golden Thread. Lawrence has appeared on stage at Magic Theatre, San Jose Stage, Aurora, Marin Theatre Company, Thick Description, amongst others. He is also a resident artist with Crowded Fire Theatre, where he has developed and debuted roles in a number of world premieres.

Roneet Aliza Rahamim

RONEET ALIZA RAHAMIM (Resident Artist / Actor) made her professional Bay Area debut performing with Golden Thread Productions in 2012. After receiving a B.F.A. in Acting from Marymount Manhattan College, she spent time working in the Twin Cities in Minnesota with companies such as Mixed Blood, Park Square Theatre, and Swandive Theater. Since the Bay Area native moved back to California, she has enjoyed working with City Lights Theater Company, Palo Alto Players, Breadbox Theater, and of course Golden Thread, among others. At Golden Thread, you may have seen her in ReOrient 2012 and 2015 and once or twice reading a New Threads work. In 2017, she was honored to receive a Theatre Bay Area Award for her work in The Diary of Anne Frank — playing young Anne was a dream role come true. Roneet stands for theatre that betters us as human beings, important stories like Anne’s and the stories Golden Thread strives to bring to its audiences. roneet.com

Sara Razavi

SARA RAZAVI (Resident Artist / Director and Actor) served on the Golden Thread Board of Trustees from 2010-2016. Razavi first collaborated with Golden Thread as a performer in ReOrient 2007. She joined the ReOrient team again in 2009, notably as the monologist in The Monologist Suffers Her Monologue by Yussef El Guindi. In addition to performance, Razavi has also directed several productions as part of ReOrient Festivals, including Mona Mansour and Tala Manassah’s The Letter (2012) and The House (2015), Farzam Farrokhi’s 2012 (2012), Nahal Navidar’s Songs of our Childhood (2015), E.H. Benedict’s War on Terror (2017), and Sevan K. Greene’s A is For Ali (2017). In addition to Golden Thread, some of Razavi’s favorite Bay Area collaborations include various productions with Elastic Future, Maryam Rostami’s, Persepolis, Texas for CounterPULSE, and Denmo Ibrahim’s BABA for Alter Theatre (winner for San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award for “Best Original Script” and nominee for “Best Solo Performance”). Razavi graduated from UC Davis with a degree in sociology and theatre studies, which included a year-long theatre focus at University of Birmingham, in England. In 2013 she completed her MBA with a focus on social enterprises and is presently the Interim CEO of Working Solutions, a microlender which provides capital and consulting services to local small businesses.

Karen Runk

KAREN RUNK (Resident Artist / Stage Manager) moved to San Francisco with the intention of only staying for a few months… Two decades later, she’s still here! This is largely due to the talented folks at the SF Mime Troupe, where Runk is the resident Production Stage Manager, but mostly due to rent control! Runk has also stage managed with the Magic Theatre, SF Shakespeare Festival, Intersection for the Arts, Word For Word, African-American Shakespeare Company, and, of course, Golden Thread Productions! Runk is excited and honored to have found a second home away from home with Golden Thread’s Resident Artists program.

Damien Seperi

DAMIEN SEPERI (Resident Artist / Actor) has done several plays and readings with people he considers friends at Golden Thread Productions, including the world premiere of Autobiography of a Terrorist by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh and the ReOrient 2015 Festival of Short Plays. He has been acting in the Bay Area for many years, and hopes to continue doing so for many more. He studied at A.C.T. and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Vives les artistes!

Benjamin Shiu

BENJAMIN SHIU (Resident Artist / Stage Manager) Golden Thread credits: Autobiography of a Terrorist (stage manager), Oh My Sweet Land (assistant stage manager), Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat (production assistant). Other credits: Belleville at Custom Made (stage manager); A Tale of Autumn, You For Me For You, The Shipment, and I Call My Brothers at Crowded Fire (assistant stage manager); Chinglish at Palo Alto Players (set crew); and Crane at Ferocious Lotus (front of house management). B.A. in Drama, SFSU.

Mohammad Talani

Born in Iran, MOHAMMAD TALANI (Resident Artist / Actor and Musician) is a Berkeley-based musician, actor, and videographer. He is founding member of BandBand and joined the indie Iranian band, Kiosk in 2012. He has been living in U.S. since 2010 and collaborated with different artists such as Bahram Beyzaei, Mohsen Namjoo, Babak Jalali, Shahrzad Sepanlou and Circo cafe.

Lisa Tateosian

LISA TATEOSIAN (Resident Artist / Choreographer and Actor) has been working with Golden Thread since 2002, when she choreographed and performed in the musical Love Missile. She has since worn many hats with the company: performer in a number of productions, stage manager for Benedictus, choreographer for Learn to Be Latina and Fairytale Players, as well as helping with assorted administrative and production tasks. Lisa has also consulted with and helped launch Golden Thread’s Education Program. Born to parents of Armenian descent, Lisa grew up in the Bay Area, studying music and dance, and began performing in community theatre at age 11. Lisa has enjoyed performing with various local dance and theatre companies including Khadra International Dance Theatre, Ballet Asfaneh, Dance Brigade, CTA/Crossroads, Douglas Morrison Theatre, Women’s Will, and College of Marin. She had a career as a Teaching Artist in numerous schools in the Bay Area, and toured in California in school productions. She has enjoyed choreographing for student shows and professional theatre. Lisa holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from Mills College and a M.A. in Educational Theatre from New York University.

Grisel (GG) Torres

Grisel (GG) Torres is from the Bay Area by way of migrant parents from Guanajuato, México. She studied Technical Theatre, Light Design, and Props Design at San Francisco State University. She also loves to paint and create movement-based performance art, and sees the two art forms as a vantage point for learning about self-healing. Grisel is the Production Manager and a Resident Artist for Golden Thread Productions, and is also the Venue Manager for the Joe Goode Annex in the Mission. She often designs lights for PUSH Dance Company and Queer Punk performance artist Keith Hennessy. She is extremely grateful to have a hand in making some of the Bay Area’s best radical art.

Mikiko Uesugi

MIKIKO UESUGI (Resident Artist / Scenic Designer) designed Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat, 444 Days, Language Room, Night Over Erzinga, and ReOrient 2004 Festival of Short Plays for Golden Thread Productions. Other theatre credits include Detroit, Fat Pig, and Salome for Aurora Theatre Company; This Lingering Life for Theatre of Yugen; Topdog/Underdog for Marin Theatre Company, Blackademics for Crowded Fire; Food Stories and 4 Adverbs for Word for Word; Ambition Facing West for TheatreWorks; Peer Gynt for the American Conservatory Theater M.F.A. program; Let My Enemy Live Long! for Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Brönte and A Common Vision for Magic Theatre; and Curlew River for Chanticleer. Uesugi, originally from Japan, received her B.A. in painting at Musashino Art University, and has exhibited her work in Tokyo. She received her M.F.A. in Theatre Arts from SFSU and held a design internship at A.C.T. She is a recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers, Ignite Fund, and the Isadora Duncan Dance Award.

Bella Warda

BELLA WARDA (Resident Artist / Actor and Director), an Iranian-born Berkeley resident, has worn many hats in the world of theatre, including acting, directing, and set and costume design. Some hats looked better than others. She hopes the hat she is wearing this time will fit and please you. She is a founding member of the Darvag Theater Group, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2015.

Heather Rastovac Akbarzadeh, Ph.D.

Heather Rastovac Akbarzadeh is an interdisciplinary scholar-artist and assistant professor in critical dance studies at the University of California, Riverside. Building upon two decades as a dance-maker, artistic director, and dramaturg among diasporic SWANA communities, Heather’s research examines diasporic SWANA performances of refusal that are oriented toward undermining (neo)colonial structures of seeing, feeling, and knowing the “Middle East.” Heather earned her Ph.D. in Performance Studies from UC Berkeley with a designated emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality, followed by a Mellon postdoctoral fellowship in Dance Studies at Stanford University and a UC Chancellor’s postdoctoral fellowship in Asian American Studies at UC Davis. Her first book monograph-in-progress is entitled Choreographing the Iranian Diaspora: Dance, Spectatorship, and the Politics of Belonging. Her publications include chapters in the Oxford Handbook of Dance Praxis (under review); Dance in the Persianate World: History, Aesthetics, and Performance (2023); Performing Iran: Cultural Identity and Theatrical Performance (2022); and Futures of Dance Studies (2020).